A year ago, the SYA Little League All-Stars left the Virginia state tournament feeling like they had unfinished business.
This summer, they finished the job.
After falling in the state quarterfinals as 9-11-year-old All-Stars, the group spent nearly a year preparing for another opportunity. Eleven of the team’s 12 players stayed together, competing at high levels of travel baseball while working toward one goal: building the strongest Little League All-Star team they could.
“We felt like we could go further,” coach Zach Costello said. “We really had a bad taste in our mouth, and we wanted to get back.”
They did—and took things considerably further.
SYA went undefeated in the District tournament, finishing 5-0 and defeating Chantilly 5-1 in the championship game to earn another trip to states. At the Virginia tournament, the team’s preparation and resilience were put to the test. In one game, SYA entered the bottom of the sixth trailing 1-0 before battling back to win on a walk-off in extra innings. In the state championship, the challenge was even greater: SYA found itself down 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth. Again, the players refused to believe the game was over. They rallied and ultimately won on another walk-off, completing a 6-0 run through the state tournament and capturing the Virginia Little League State Championship. The victory made the team just the third in SYA history to win states and advance to the Southeast Regional Tournament in Warner Robins, Georgia, where teams compete for a chance to advance to the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport.
For Costello, the team’s success was about more than talent.
Throughout the year, the coaches encouraged the players to “embrace doing things hard.” They studied baseball, watched video of previous regional teams and prepared for situations that might make them uncomfortable. That work helped develop a team Costello described as resilient, mentally tough and confident in its preparation.
“I would put our work ethic and baseball IQ against any other team in the country,” he said. “The team believed it because the proof is there.”
SYA finished its All-Star run 12-2, with its final two losses coming at the Southeast Regional. For the coaches, though, the memories extend well beyond the record. “I didn’t know this level of fun existed,” Costello said. “Us, as coaches, were there with the boys every step of the way. Blood, sweat and tears—we exchanged it all. Nothing but love for each other.” The run also showed what can happen when players have opportunities to continue developing within SYA. Costello credits the organization’s different levels of baseball, including travel opportunities, with helping keep players challenged while allowing this group to remain together. “This is absolutely a memory to remember for the rest of our lives,” Costello noted.
Now, younger SYA teams are following the same path—staying together, working and developing with hopes of making a run of their own.
For this group of 12, however, the summer of 2026 will be hard to top: District champions. Virginia champions.
Southeast Regional participants which resulted in a Top 30 in the nation finish.
And one of only three SYA Little League baseball teams ever to make it that far.
